Autopsy: Rehanna died of accidental neck strangulation

A BLOUSE hanging from a clothes line which became entangled around the neck of 11-year-old Rehanna Briggs and obstructed her arteries when she fell, caused her to suffocate on Friday.

Pathologist Dr Valery Alexandrov said the child’s cause of death was asphyxia due to accidental neck strangulation by soft ligature when she became entangled in the blouse.

Alexandrov said Briggs suffocated after two pairs of cervical arteries on her neck were obstructed by the blouse. Rehanna was found dead at her home at Dyer’s Village, Williamsville, minutes after she was seen dancing in an unfinished house where the clothes line was hanging.

Alexandrov, who conducted the autopsy yesterday at the Forensic Science Centre, St James, said the child’s jugular vein and carotid artery on both sides of the neck were obstructed.

“To obstruct the jugular vein only requires eight pounds, and to obstruct the deep-seated carotid artery only requires seven pounds. The girl was 38 kilogrammes, which is 76 pounds. The weight of her own body was more than enough to compress the jugular veins and carotid artery on the sides of the neck,” said the pathologist.